According to some former members of Polisario now aligned with Morocco, Abdelaziz was "chosen" by Algeria at the top of the organization although he did not belong to the very closed circle of the organization's founders and "he always considered himself to be their man."[14]

In April 2000, the Moroccan weekly newspaper Le Journal Hebdomadaire "crossed a political redline" by printing an interview with Abdelaziz, and was briefly banned from publishing.[15] The Moroccan Ministry of Communications responded by banning both Le Journal and Assahifa Al Ousbouia, though the latter had not run the interview in question. A Ministry spokesperson stated that the reasons for the papers' banning were "excesses in [their] editorial line concerning the question of Morocco’s territorial integrity" and "collusion with foreign interests".[16]

The Organization of African Unity seated Western Sahara for the first time in 1982, despite Morocco's vehement objections. In 1985, Abdelaziz was elected as Vice-President of the OAU at its 21st summit, effectively signalling that the Sahrawi Republic would be a permanent OAU member despite the controversy.[18] In 2002, he was elected as vice-president of the African Union, at its first summit.[citation needed]

There is some criticism against him from within the Polisario for preventing reforms inside the movement[citation needed], and for insisting on a diplomatic course that has so far gained few concessions from Morocco, rather than re-launching the armed struggle favored by many within the movement. The only supposedly opposition group is the Front Polisario Khat al-Shahid, which states that it wants to restore the legacy of his predecessor, El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed[citation needed]. Abdelaziz specifically denied the existence of such a group;[9] he maintains that only the Polisario exists in the camps. Others[who?] consider that, despite his militant rhetoric, Abdelaziz cannot order a resumption of fighting without the approval of the Algerian government[citation needed].

Abdelaziz has condemned terrorism, insisting the Polisario's guerrilla war is to be a "clean struggle" (that is, not targeting private citizens' safety or property); he however acknowledged mistreatment to Moroccan prisoners of war as well as attacking civilian populations in Moroccan cities[9] by the polisario, justifying this as necessary evils in times of war and that the Polisario had to use every mean in order to defend the Sahrawi population from the enemy.[9]